Towards Interventions for Senior Women in Higher Education

This book has analysed gender, power and management in higher education across eight countries. It explored the significance of women being part of, rather than excluded from, university senior management, albeit in a minority position with all the implications of this status. The complex processes that impact on women in male-dominated occupations were explored through the different chapters. These include the relationship for women between paid work and their continuing responsibility for unpaid caring work, internal labour markets that can present structural obstacles and barriers, and a cultural environment where women have to deal with issues around patriarchy. Also relevant were power bases and issues of marginalisation and exclusion, and being very visible at times as one of very few women, but also invisible sometimes when trying to be heard and make changes (see Bagilhole 2002 for a full discussion of these issues in academia and other male-dominated occupations). The background to the study undertaken by the international collaborative Women in Higher Education Management (WHEM) Network, how the Network was developed, the selection of countries and the logistics of the study were outlined.